Advertisement
Published: October 8th 2007
Edit Blog Post
Angkor What?
Detail from temple carving at Angkor Wat Hello again - Andrew here this time
Cambodia...all I knew going into the country was that it had an awesome archeological site (angkor wat), that it had an abundance of landmines and had hosted an oppresive government regime.
To be quite honest, I really don't know much more than that now. We were in the country for just over a week, and while I have a better appreciation of the country, I don't feel like I ever felt the real pulse of the nation. This trip was very much a tourist experience...we never really got off the beaten path, and I felt the impact of that much more here than in most of the countries we'd visited before.
The beaten path that we started on was one of the worst roads that we've encountered thus far. We had spent a very enjoyable couple of days in Bangkok (more on that in another blog) before heading by bus to Siem Reip, the home of the Angkor Wat temples. From the border crossing at Thailand to the tourist mecca of Siem Reip there were more potholes than driveable road. It was brutal. We were doing the trip in a taxi
Plus ca Change
A good looking bum was obviously just as important to the ancients - unfortunately this poor fella is missing his tail... that had been arranged by the hostel in Siem Reip. At $45 USD, it was a complete ripoff, but the alternative was worse...the Bangkok to Siem Reip bus scam. The transportation mafia at the border has control of all the public buses driving this road. They take tourists on a verrry long ride, stopping often at the side of the road for hours due to 'breakdowns' (we saw a few unlucky groups on the way). This is all to ensure that you arrive at their remote guesthouse (regardless of the planned destination) at a very late hour of the night, exhausted and unwilling to find your own much cheaper accomodation.
We managed to avoid another type of scam in our taxi...the "no room at the inn" scam. The taxi driver knows which hostel you are staying at because they booked him in the first place. He then arranges to receive a phone call on his mobile, which he passes on to you, saying "it's your guesthouse". The person on the other end of the line explains that they are from your hostel and informs you that they have overbooked, your room is no longer available. Of course your driver
What's on Their Minds?
The carvings are rubbed smooth where tourists have touched the rock.... is all too willing to help you find another hotel of his choosing and pocket the massive commission! Having been warned of these types of scams many times (thank you Lonely Planet), we didn't even bother to listen to the phone call. We simply told the driver that he was to take us directly to our booked accomodation and that was it. He didn't try very hard after that......We were happy to arrive in our clean, comfortable and roomy accomodation without further incident. Sometimes the journey really is half the fun.
We spent the two days touring around 'Angkor Wat'. The name actually refers to the largest temple in a vast landscape of ancient religious works. The pictures say more about this place than my feeble words ever will. The grandeur of the temples is only somewhat brought down by the tourism here - you can still find yourself alone (for a little while) amongst the ruins, contemplating the mysteries of the universe. The place is amazing, and the pictures don't do it justice. After two days of pounding the ancient pavement, we were ready to move on...we had seen many temples, and they were all starting to look
Looking for Inspiration
Jen investigates the mysteries of the central spire of Angkor Wat like one another.
Our trip to Phnom penh, the capital, was generally disturbing. The city itself is nothing particularly exciting, but the recent past of the Khmer Rouge actrocities made up for that in spades. Visiting the killing fields and viewing thousands of human skulls unearthed from the mass graves was a troubling experience. What made it very real for us was that our families were alive and happy in Canada and Indonesia while it was all going on. We can only hope that similar things won't happen in our own lifetimes, although all the history that we've been learning on this trip suggests that we will see lots of equally disturbing things before we die. We can only hope that they are on the six o'clock news, and not in our own journals - or better yet, that they can be prevented before they get this far. I think that the internet may help with that.
Two fun things happened while we were in Phnom Penh....I discovered the limit of my adventurous eating (bugs) and we had an awesome meal with three other travellers that we met over beers before heading off to dinner. The unplanned meal
Surveyig his Domain
Andrew checks out the grounds from on high get-togethers are always a good time.
Reading the history of the country, I realised how modern most of the nations in the area are. The only difference between the 'peoples' of Cambodia, Thailand, Laos, Burma, Vietnam and southern China was what they had experienced in the last few generations. While this has obviously had a major impact on their personalities and societies, it really doesn't separate them as cultural groups as we had previously thought. Cambodia as we currently know the borders is barely more than a hundred years old, and even in that short time has been invaded more than once and suffered a brutal civil war. Makes us very, very happy (and exceedingly lucky) to have grown up knowing peaceful lives in a prosperous country. We are very much aware of our good fortunes after having seen whole countries of people who have not shared our luck.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.042s; Tpl: 0.013s; cc: 10; qc: 19; dbt: 0.0196s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb